Ferruccio Lamborghini's twin-twelve Riva speedboat restored [w/video]
Posted Oct 13th 2013 10:01AM
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Everyone knows that Lamborghini makes exotic sportscars, but true aficionados are also well versed in the other types of machinery that has worn the Raging Bull emblem. There are the tractors, of course, with which founder Ferruccio got his start, but the company has also marinized its high-revving twelve-cylinder engines for use on the water.
Over the years, Lamborghini engines powered many crews to offshore powerboat racing trophies, but before all of that came the vessel you see here. The 278th of 769 made between 1962 and 1996, this Riva Aquarama was commissioned by Ferruccio Lamborghini himself. It was delivered from the shipyard in 1968, complete with a pair of 4.0-liter V12 engines out of a Lamborghini 350 GT, and old man Ferruccio enjoyed using it for many years.
Following his death in 1993, the one-of-a-kind Riva Aquarama Lamborghini disappeared into obscurity, hidden away from the world under a tarp until a Dutch collector tracked it down and had it restored by Sandro Zani and his team at Riva World. The project took three years to complete, including the restoration of the wooden hull with 25 coats of lacquer applied.
Although the Ferruccio Lamborghini Museum wasn't prepared to sell one of the engines that originally powered the vessel and which remains in its collection, the curators did permit the team to disassemble it to recreate the parts in order to transform another set of original 350 GT engines – complete with six pairs of Weber carburetors – to the same condition. The result is 350 horsepower apiece for a top speed of 48 knots (55 landlubber's miles per hour), considerably faster than a standard Aquarama's 40-knot (46-mph) top speed.
The result, as you can see from the photos above and the press release and video below, is one of the most stunning classic vessels ever to turn a prop – and could be one of the most desirable Lamborghinis on land or water.
